


I would be lonely if I was somebody else

by Idris



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 20:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1954656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idris/pseuds/Idris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tharkay and the concept of home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I would be lonely if I was somebody else

Tharkay has long since learned that _home_ is a nebulous,  ill-defined concept.

For his own part, _home_ is the moment that he unfolds a new map for the first time and sits for long hours tracing his fingers over unknown names, over deserts and plains and jungles and forests, and feels the first shock of anticipation.

_Home_ is an empty road under wide skies, beyond the back of beyond, far from anything he has ever known.

_Home_ is a ticket for the most distant shores where he doesn’t know a single face. He soon will. Tharkay is good at that, finding his way. He treasures it as his most valuable talent.

Laurence pities him a little for it, thinking of Tharkay’s life as a barren and empty existence, no wife, no family, no dragon, no house, no certainties, but what he does not understand is that sometimes _home_ is nothing to do with places and people. If Tharkay were someone else, he would be lonely. As it is, he smiles as he opens his maps and wonders absently what Russia is like this time of year.


End file.
